By Jon Johnson
PIMA – After years of planning and roughly 18 months since its groundbreaking, the Pima School District celebrated the opening of the town’s first new high school in 87 years with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour of the campus on Friday.
“This is a rare and exciting day for us, it truly is,” said Pima High School Principal Cody Barlow. “I mean, it’s a big deal. This doesn’t happen every day. A lot of us won’t be around the next time Pima High School is erected and built here in Pima. So, it’s pretty awesome to be part of this, and I’m super proud of it.”
Community members were joined by local and state politicians, school board members, school employees, and students with the band, choir, and student council to usher in the new era for Pima schooling.
The 67,000 square foot campus set on a sprawling 44-acre site nearly doubles the size of the previous high school. It features amenities including a new football stadium, baseball fields, tennis courts, and a gymnasium. The school houses new classrooms, culinary and performing arts, CTE, and school administration.
School officially began on Wednesday, with work on the facilities coming down to the wire.
“On Wednesday of last week, the kids showed up,” Pima Superintendent Sean Rickert told the crowd. “And it went from a project to a school. The ability to create a school . . . I am grateful to all of you for your willingness to bear with us as we’ve figured things out. But knowing that at the end of the day, we were going to do what was best for Pima.”
After initially starting the process to build a new school in 2018, the school eventually received a new construction grant of $22.3 million to build the high school. It secured a loan of nearly $4.5 million to be paid through regular school operating revenue, saving residents from the burden of having to pay off a bond as other schools utilize for funding. The school has also received grants and funding from The United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties (which paid for the football stadium) and local donations, including fundraisers such as the annual Pima Turkey Trot. The total cost, according to Rickert, was $37 million.
“Pima schools is not a building but a student body connected through generations of time who have and will make a difference in this world,” Student Body President Ryan Skiba said at the ribbon cutting. “We make the buildings great through our achievements, bring pride to our school through our community. We are grateful for the newest facilities from which to launch our mission of image – the change the world needs and excelling in our educational pursuits. We are proud of our school, and as always, go Roughriders.”
Pima High School’s current enrollment is about 400 students. The school was initially built to house up to 500 students, but can be easily expanded to house 600 students at full build-out, according to Rickert.
Since the classrooms and buildings left behind from the old high school are not up to code for student use, they are now utilized as administration offices.
Eight rooms in the former high school building will be transformed into the Little Riders Academy. This new program will offer Preschool with space for over 60 students aged 3 to 5 years old, representing one in four projected kindergarten students, and childcare services for children from newborn to 5 years old.
At the other end of the old high school campus, the district is extending its partnership with Eastern Arizona College (EAC) through the establishment of EAC at Pima. A 12,000-square-foot career education building will be leased to EAC for the next 10 years. EAC plans to offer a variety of programs designed to develop marketable skills and personal interest courses. This collaboration represents a significant expansion of educational opportunities for students and the community.
Lingering infrastructure needs
There are still some significant construction tasks to occur before the school is truly finished.
Currently, the only entrance to the new high school is off Center Street to the north. Funding for a new road and traffic light at U.S. Highway 70 and 200 South for the new high school has come and gone with federal whims; however, new funding from the Southwest Border Regional Commission of roughly $350,000 from Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’ office has reportedly recently been approved to assist with the estimated $2.4 million project. The town has applied for a separate grant covering the total amount needed and is expected to receive an answer by Aug. 22.
The other incomplete infrastructure project is the sewer from the school to the town’s sewer pond.
Under the umbrella of the school’s construction project, the cost to construct a new pipeline that heads north from the school directly into the town’s lift station at its sewer ponds on the other side of Ash Creek was previously quoted at $3.4 million. However, the school was only allocated $1.7 million for its sewer. Upon further inspection, a pipeline from the school to the sewer pond would necessitate a new lift station at the sewer pond, as the current one would be too low under Ash Creek to connect.
Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty received a quote from Bowman Consulting — a trusted, multidisciplinary consulting firm offering a broad range of real estate, energy, infrastructure, and environmental management solutions to public and private clients nationwide, with an office in Safford — that reported it could be done for $1.5 million.
Since that quote is less than the school has allocated for the project, it will be fully funded. And with the previously approved $500,000 from the town, Pima can construct a new lift station for $350,000 to $400,000 on the east side of Ash Creek with a larger 15-inch line into the new lift station that runs into its sewer pond. This will also allow for the eventual retirement of the current lift station, as the town would route that pipe into the new lift station.
The town is currently waiting on final plans on the sewer and lift station from Bowman Consulting before going to bid on the project, which it hopes to complete by the end of the year. In the meantime, the school must pump its waste into a manhole that leads to the sewer until the new sewer line is complete.
